Creating Spaces for Arts-Informed Responses in Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

We address the bene ts and challenges of using an arts-informed response in an undergraduate teacher education course from the perspective of a teacher and two students. Feminist pedagogies provide the theoretical lens through which our experiences are analyzed. From the teacher’s perspective, this arts-informed approach modeled to pre-service teachers how they could use arts-informed inquiry in their future classrooms, to engage in conscious raising about inequality, while meeting di erent learning styles in their classrooms. From the students’ perspective, it was surprising to be invited to do an arts-informed reading response. Acceptance depended on the perception of risk. Our conclusion is that more space should be created for arts-informed approaches in undergraduate teacher education programs.

Social Work, Gerontology, and the Arts: A Creative Approach to Teaching Undergraduate Social Work Students

“…While critical thinking unfolds in various ways, creative forms of engagement invite people to take an active lead in their learning, and has been found to support different learning styles while facilitating a stronger connection with course content (Edwards, Perry, Janzen, & Menzies, 2012;Hagedorn, 1994). There are growing examples of arts-based engagement in postsecondary studies including education (Lewis, Wright-Harvey, & Moisey, 2016), health care (Cox, Brett-MacLean, & Courneya, 2015), and community organizing (Sitter, 2015). More recently, we also hear of arts-based processes within the field of social work, as there is a growing interest in using visual art as a means to encourage critical thinking amongst undergraduate students (Clark et al, 2012;Walton, 2012;Wehbi, McCormick, & Angelucci, 2016).…”